Closing the Gender Gap in Education and Health
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FIGURE 2.10
Rising Gender Gap in Completion Rates from Primary to Tertiary Education in MENA Countries, 2000 (female completion rate as a percentage of male completion rate)
Percent 120 Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
100 80 60 40 20 0 Algeria
Bahrain
Egypt, Arab Rep. of
Iran, Islamic Rep. of
Iraq
Jordan
Kuwait
Syrian Arab Rep.
Tunisia
Source: Primary completion rates compiled from World Bank 2003f (2000 or most recent year available); secondary and tertiary data from Barro and Lee 2000.
2015. The gender gaps in primary and secondary education are likely to be eliminated as early as 2005 in all MENA countries. Closing those gaps, however, will be more difficult than it has been in the past. Against the background of decreasing public sector budgets— coupled with continuing growth in the school-age population and in rural and nomadic populations, who are harder to reach—that closure will require efficiency gains, as well as educational strategies that include new priorities and approaches. Continued, if not greater, government commitment will be needed on the supply side, along with a new emphasis on demand-side interventions (box 2.3). In regard to the other areas addressed by the third Millennium Development Goal—improvements in the shares of women working in paid nonagricultural jobs and holding seats in national parliaments—women in the region have made less progress. Although other factors are also at work, the quality of education has a role to play in empowering women to obtain roles in the public sphere. Here too, some new priorities and approaches will be needed in educational policies and practices, thereby targeting the particular needs of girls.